In a first, Arakan crisis unites NLD, army and public

Senior General Min Aung Hlaing, left, Burma’s commander-in-chief, shakes hands with then-National League for Democracy (NLD) party leader Aung San Suu Kyi before their meeting at his office in Naypyidaw on 2 December 2015. (Photo: Reuters)

If there’s one thing that unites Aung San Suu Kyi’s party, the army that once tried to crush her, and the majority of people in mostly Buddhist Burma, it is their vehement dislike of Rohingya Muslims, seen as a threat to national security.

“We don’t love the military, but we are together on this one,” said Nyan Win, a top official of Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD), who the country’s former junta had detained for nearly three years. “Our sovereignty can’t be violated and that is why we are united.”

“These people are illegal immigrants, that’s for sure. But the international community never mentions that,” said Nyan Win, 75, who chairs the ruling NLD’s media team and is one of the most influential members of the party.

But even as the United Nations has called the army crackdown on the Rohingya “ethnic cleansing,” Western diplomats — from countries competing with China for influence in the Southeast Asian nation — say abandoning Suu Kyi or reimposing sanctions could risk Burma’s democratic transition.

Though Rohingya families have lived in Burma for generations, they are denied citizenship and access to basic civil rights such as freedom of movement, decent education and health care.

Attacks by Rohingya militants on security posts last month triggered an army operation that has killed more than 400 people, destroyed over 6,800 houses and sent nearly 400,000 Rohingya fleeing to Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugees and rights groups say the army has launched a campaign aimed at driving them out.

Suu Kyi, who holds the title of “state counsellor” and is de facto head of government, has said the militant Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) is responsible for the burning of homes, civilian deaths as well as “a huge iceberg of misinformation” on the strife in western Arakan State.

Revered when she was under house arrest for some 15 years, the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been criticised by fellow Nobel laureates and some leaders across the world. A petition drive is under way to revoke her Nobel prize. Malala Yousafzai, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, called on her to condemn the “shameful” treatment of the Rohingya, saying “the world is waiting” for her to speak out.

“Shame on you Malala! You know nothing about real situation in our country,” Burmese internet user Nann Wint War wrote in a tweet. “There is no Rohingya, only Bengali terrorists in Rakhine [Arakan],” said the tweet, a reference to Rohingya that suggests they come from Bangladesh.

Suu Kyi’s government launched a media campaign aimed at shoring up public support for the operation.

In Facebook and Twitter posts, it has shown off support for non-Muslims displaced by the violence and blamed the international community for distributing “fake news” about alleged rights abuses.

“Hard Evidence Please!”, Suu Kyi’s spokesman, Zaw Htay, said in a tweet last week reacting to a BBC News report that Arakanese Buddhist villagers set Muslim houses on fire. “You wrote you just saw it, share your #Evidence.”

Aung Shin, an NLD spokesman, said only Burmese citizens understand the situation in Arakan as “foreign countries made their assumption based on questionable facts they obtained.”

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Many in Burma fear the Rohingya present a threat to the Buddhist Arakanese majority in Arakan State. Sixteen non-Muslims were killed and nearly 30,000 have also been displaced, fleeing to larger towns.

The conflict in Arakan has stoked communal tensions across the country.

A mob armed with sticks and swords, threatening to attack a mosque in central Burma, was only dispersed on Sunday after police with riot shields fired rubber bullets. Muslims have voiced fear that other mosques will come under attack and have asked for tighter security.

Thiri Thant Mon, managing director at Rangoon-based investment advisory firm Sandanila, said many in Burma think the international community has wrongly directed its attention to the Rohingya fleeing Burma, instead of the suffering of Arakanese Buddhists in one of its poorest states.

“The entire population here just feel misunderstood. They feel like we are not bad people. It’s not us, it’s them who are killing us and why aren’t you talking about it?” said Thiri Thant Mon, who herself does not identify with such views.

The Rohingya issue has put Suu Kyi in an awkward position politically, the diplomats said. The military still controls much of the state apparatus even after the 2011 transition to democracy. It portrays itself as the true guardians of nationalism and Buddhism. They say that could be a reason for Suu Kyi’s reticence.

“If she speaks out on such a sensitive issue, the situation will explode, making it harder for her to solve the problem in Rakhine,” said Nyan Win, the NLD executive.

“We can accept them as humans but we cannot let them move around freely, which violates our sovereignty,” he said, adding that the Rohingya belong in camps for displaced people in Arakan due to security reasons.

“We can’t give them freedom of movement because they are not our citizens.”

9 Comments

This is a classic case of an entire nation being infected with a disease called “Intellectual Dwarfism”. The symptons include hatred for the darker race, felling superior over others who do not look like them or sound like them. The main cause for this dwarfism is ethno-supremacy, ultra-nationalism and xenophobia. Unfortunately there is no cure for this dreaded disease.
The Germans went through this during WWII and the disease was wiped out only after they paid a horrible price in terms of blood and treasure. I hope the Burmese read world history like the rest of the world does.

Images from other conflicts, some decades old, are being used as Bengali Rohingya’s propaganda.
“Misleading images claiming to depict violence in Myanmar are being shared on social media by Bengalis(Rohingya) Rights Activists like ” European Rohingya Council”, “Burma Human Rights Network UK”,”Burma Task Force USA”,”Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK”, “Burma Campaign UK” etc.
Graphic images, in some cases relating to atrocities elsewhere, are being posted alongside claims of violence in Rakhine state by the Bengali Rohingya.

Recently, the deputy Prime Minister of Turkey has been caught lying, spreading and tweeting fake photographs of the event that actually occurred in other countries. People who could trace back the origin of the photos discovered that they are inauthentic.
When the ambassador of Turkey to Myanmar was called in to explain the matter there appeared a tweet admitting the inauthenticity of the said post which was later deleted.
Likewise, AFP has to change its photos after confessing to using wrong ones in releasing Rakhine region news.
Although the confessions were made about the false information and images, they have already damaged the image of the Burma government, the security forces and the people.

Matthew Smith, chief executive of the human rights group, Fortify Rights, said such posts are “tremendously unhelpful” and fuel mistrust.

The Muslim media and Bengali Rohingya right groups put out outrageously false, fraudulent, and manipulative media with the intent to demonize and vilify the Burma country, the Buddhists of Rakhine State.
And surprisingly and tragically many Western activists,’Rohingya’ supporters and sympathizers believe it all !!!

The mainstream and UN interviews in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh conducted with Bengali Rohingya refugees are largely fake and exaggerated. None of the news portals report facts, just fictional accounts.
Usually the Bengali Rohingya terrorists and the Bengali Rohingya Right group coach Bengali Rohingya refugees to lie, to cry when media and UN interviewing.
The stories of rape, torching Bengali Rohingya’s villages and extrajudicial killings are mass-transmitted and in no way are they fabricated unless the entire population in addition to all media outlets and human-rights organizations have conspired together.

The UN is run for the benefit of Islam and is not credible anymore.
The Muslim High Commissioner for Human Rights and Bengali Rohingya right groups accuse the Burma Gov of ‘GENOCIDE’, ETHNIC CLEANSING’ against the Bengali (‘Rohingya’) Muslims.
That is not even close to being a situation that can use the term ‘Genocide’.
The only true genocide in Burma was the 1942 Maungdaw Genocide – where Bengali Muslims V-Force (the term ‘Rohingya’ was unknown then) armed by the British to fight the Japanese in WWII did not fight the Japanese,
but instead, turned the weapons on the dominant, indigenous Rakhine Buddhist Culture, killing 30,000 Rakhine Buddhists in Maungdaw township alone, burned over 400 Buddhist villages, and sent 100,000 Buddhists fleeing for their lives.
These are attempts by so-called Rohingya Rights Groups to cover their exaggerated and manipulative accusations against the Rakhine Buddhists in western Burma, with the inflammatory charge of: ‘genocide against the Rohingya Muslims’
Bengalis(Rohingya) are trying to hijack Rakhine state by inventing fake story after another fake story. The OIC-Arab Muslim countries are supporting those Bengalis(Rohingya) Activists and the illegal Bengali ( Rohingya) migrants’ group by given money and organizing terrorism training for Bengali (Rohingya) terrorists in Pakistan and Afghanistan border.
Those illegal Bengali migrants in Rakhine state are dishonest and they didn’t show any gratitude to Burmese Government and local Rakhine peoples for letting them stay in Rakhine state for long times. They only bring chaos and destruction to the host country like Burma…They are parasites to any civilized societies.
As in other non-Muslim countries, Bengali ( Rohingya) Muslims are engaged in jihad in Myanmar to establish a Sharia state. The latest jihadi attack occurred on 25th August 2017 at 1:00 AM (Burma Time)when the Bengali ( Rohingya) terrorists raided Myanmar’s armory and subsequently a dozen of Myanmar security forces were killed and arms and ammunition were looted.
Main victims are native Rakhine people.Day by day the innocent Rakhine Buddhists are hacked to death by Bengali Rohingya terrorist.

The corrupt media have been busy, as usual, to portray the Bengali Rohingya ARSA terrorists in Burma as “innocent victims” who have been “living in this Rakhine state for centuries”. This is total rubbish.
Now The Bengali Rohingya terrorists are playing the victimhood card as usual and Muslims all over the world are joining in the chorus of anti- Buddhist and anti-Myanmar demonstrations.

The root of the problem is Bangladesh’s overpopulation fueled by lack of birth control. Bangladesh is the real culprit and is encouraging its surplus population to flood the neighboring countries including Myanmar.
Myanmar is only a scapegoat. Instead, the attention and international pressure should be directed to the Bangladeshi government.

Your government just committed Genocide , and that is not a fake.
Your government just committed Crimes against Humanity, and that is not a fake
Your government just expelled 400,000 native Muslims from their homes which is a textbook case of ethnic cleansing, and that is not a fake.

“Who is going to believe your lies.” – People that can read history and fully understand what took place all those years ago and then cross reference today in comparison. Time will speak for itself.
Abraham Lincoln says
You can fool some of the people all of the time.
And all of the people some of the time,
But you can not fool all of the people all of the time.

Bangladesh is a middle income country and Burma is a poor country, you forget it. Come on with reality. Rohingya are the inhabitant there for thousand years. Middle aged Arakan literature is the best evidence in support of Rohingya. The ancient name of Arakan was Rosang and Rohingya’s are being addressed as of Rosang. So Rohingya’s are ingenious people of Arakan.

Day by day the innocent Buddhists are hacked to death by Bengali Rohingya ARSA terrorists.
what about ‘GENOCIDE’, ETHNIC CLEANSING’ against the Rakhine people?

ISLAMIC GENOCIDES of the last 100 years:

The only true genocide in the last 100 years in Burma was the 1942 Maungdaw
Genocide – where Bengali Muslims (the term ‘Rohingya’ was unknown then)
armed by the British to fight the Japanese in WWII did not fight the Japanese,
but instead, turned the weapons on the dominant, indigenous Buddhist Culture,
killing 30,000 Buddhists in Maungdaw township alone, burned over 400
Buddhist villages, and sent 100,000 Buddhists fleeing for their lives.

Casualties: over 160,000 Kurds, Christians, Arabs in Iraq, since 2003.

Casualties: 30,000 Somali children,in Somalia 2011.

There is also a very long list of many thousands of
Islamic motivated attacks, destruction, or terrorist acts in many countries..
India and Nepal are looking to deport illegal Rohingya from their countries for the safety and security of their countries.

How may century an ethnic community needs to get citizenship of a country? How Rohingya were elected MP and been minister in Burmese government before 80s decade? How they were considered as public representatives and how their voting rights was in place before 80s after being immigrant people. These looks so fabricated truth.